Prosecutors on Friday detained and indicted a motorboat racer on charges of fixing races, officials said, in the first legal case of its kind in South Korea.
The 36-year-old racer surnamed Park is suspected of taking cash from two gambling brokers in exchange for giving them the predicted orders of finishes in races, according to prosecutors in Euijeongbu, a city just north of Seoul.
The two brokers, including a 51-year-old man surnamed Wi, were also indicted but without physical detention, officials said.
Prosecutors said the racer received 270 million won ($241,286) from the brokers on two occasions between April and May last year and sent them mobile text messages containing predicted rankings of 17 races that he took part in.
The brokers later bet on races based on such information and reportedly enjoyed big payouts.
Park is skilled enough to finish a race as he intends when he knows who the other five other competitors in the race are, prosecutors said.
Park is known to be the top-level racer who ranked ninth among some 150 registered racers in the average prize money ranking from 2005 to 2010.
But the brokers claimed during questioning that their actual gains were minimal despite their correct predictions in the races because they suffered many losses in other races, according to prosecutors. (Yonhap News)
